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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed the strong backing it received from Pope John Paul II who urged the international community to provide financial support to the agency's global school feeding programme.

The panel laying the groundwork for the new anti-AIDS fund that has been championed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has concluded its activities, paving the way for the first meeting of the fund's newly formed Board early next year.

Calling the Sunday televised address by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat "historic," the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process has urged senior Palestinian and Israeli officials to take further steps to ease tension in the region.

Meeting into the early hours of Saturday morning on the situation in the Middle East, the Security Council today failed to adopt a draft resolution by which it would have condemned all acts of extrajudiciary executions, excessive use of force and wide destruction of property, and would have encouraged the establishment of a monitoring mechanism to help the parties.

Despite an improvement in the overall food situation in sub-Saharan Africa, millions of people continue to face hunger and starvation, according to new findings by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The United Nations agency aiding the Palestinian refugees said today it was providing shelter and humanitarian supplies to several hundred people affected by the destruction of 35 refugee shelters in Khan Younis camp during an Israeli military operation on Thursday night.

Preparations for the transfer of power next week to the new Interim Authority for Afghanistan were proceeding "very well," Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, said today.

The head of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo said today that his recent trip to three eastern cities with a group of senior diplomats from six countries was a positive development for the peace process in the DRC.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today established a temporary fund to enable donors to provide financial support for the Interim Authority for Afghanistan during the next six months.

Relief efforts for Afghanistan received a boost today as the United Nations and the Government of Uzbekistan agreed on measures to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to northern Afghanistan by UN agencies and international non-governmental organizations.